Chapter 23 part 1

"Look, we've been over this, Alex," Allison told Alex as Alex held her phone against her ear. "Either you find a way to deal with these urges by yourself, or you get another girl who's willing to sleep with you. Your girlfriend gave you permission to do that, so that really is an option."

"But it's still cheating," Alex protested, as she paced around her room. "Even if she said I could, wouldn't that still be wrong?"

Allison sighs. "Yeah, technically it's cheating, but since you were given permission, that means your relationship is an open one. Look, you told me yourself last week that you were struggling with only being able to touch Charlie's breasts over her clothing. So, I know a girl who would be perfect for a one night stand. She won't talk about it and you'll be able to get what you need," Allison replies.

"I'm still not sure," Alex said, feeling the need, yet trying to push it away. "I mean, while she said I could, what if she sees me with another girl and still gets hurt?"

"If you'd like, I can bring Beth into this," Allison offered. "She knows Charlie better than either of us, since they've hung out so much. I'm sure she'd be able to help run interference if it was necessary."

Alex just shook her head, even though she knew Allison couldn't see it. "Isn't there another way?"

"We already tried all the other options there are," Allison replied, sounding like she was starting to lose her patience. "It's been a couple months already and I can tell that you're losing it."

"Are you sure this will work?" Alex asked, feeling like if she agreed to this that she'd lose something important of herself that she might not be able to get back.

"Not at all," Allison replied without hesitation. "I'm not sure what would work, but what I am confident of is that it's worth a try."

"Still…" Alex said, trailing off, not sure how to finish the sentence.

"Look, if you're still worried about it, talk to Charlie about it. I'm sure she'll say that she's okay with you doing another girl right now. As it is, the girl I mentioned has her home to herself tonight and tomorrow night. We all have the week off from school for fall break and Thanksgiving, so you can just tell your grandma that you're staying with me. I'll cover for you while you screw the girl silly and satisfy what you need," Allison replied.

"Alright fine," Alex relented. "I'll talk with Charlie about it. If she says she's okay with it, then I'll do it. It's just it feels wrong to me, but being that close to her and not being able to really touch her is driving me crazy." Alex sighed, feeling tired. Then after a moment continued, "I mean, I thought all relationships were like that. Once you start dating, you get in bed soon after."

"Yeah, Amber really screwed you up, Alex," Allison said.

"I don't know," Alex hedged. She still wasn't sure that her ex was all that bad. Or at least as bad as Allison has told her she was.

However, she doubted she'd see her again. At least for a while, since she moved in with her grandma after her parents died.

_

Charlie sighed as she got home. She'd talked it over with her friends about when would be the best time for them to start their expedition. They had first thought about after Thanksgiving, but now with some of the homework they'd been given, they now were thinking that during winter break would be better. So, that no matter how long it took, they wouldn't need to worry about forgetting about their homework. Or at least forgetting that they still needed to turn it in when they got back.

Charlie was a little surprised that she didn't care all that much. While she had at first been excited to be dating Alex, she found that she was quickly losing interest. While she enjoyed hanging out with Alex, usually listening to music one or the other of them liked, she felt that they weren't really doing much connecting. Almost like that's all either of them could think of doing.

Well, Charlie couldn't help but correct herself, when they watched a movie together, Alex always wanted to feel up Charlie and she had to be stern with Alex that she couldn't touch her breasts under her clothing and certainly not her legs or between them. In addition, while she liked touching Alex's breasts, she held herself back from that, even though she knew Alex wanted her to touch them. There were more than a few times that she had to leave in the middle of the movie because Alex kept getting too insistent.

If that was what dating someone was about and all there was to do, then Charlie wondered if she should just break up with Alex and stay single. One of the reasons she kept herself from doing that was simply because she didn't know if her feeling this way was because of her lack of social experience or if it was because neither of them could drive and they weren't exactly near anything that would contain many activities for them to do.

Although, as Charlie entered her room, she wondered if maybe she should try going for a walk with Alex through the woods. There probably was a trail or something they could walk along, just the two of them. Maybe that would make a difference, Charlie told herself, even though she wasn't really that confident in that happening.

"Charlie? You're in there, right?" Charlie heard Cherie ask just outside her closed door.

"Yeah, what do you want?" Charlie asked as she contemplated a nap while laying on her bed.

"Mom called and said that Aunt Rose and Ruthie are going to be here early. They're also brining a guest," Cherie said.

Charlie groaned. For Cherie to be telling her this meant that they were expected to arrive before their parents got home. Which meant within the next couple hours. Which also meant that Charlie wouldn't be able to take her nap, since she wouldn't then be able to help bring in their bags and be a good host.

"Hey, don't complain to me," Cherie said. "Mom barely called before you got home."

"I don't blame you, Cherie," Charlie said as she got up off of her bed. "I was just thinking of taking a nap."

Cherie laughed. "Yeah, Aunt Rose would be so mad at you if you were asleep when she got here," Cherie said, her voice full of amusement.

"Yeah, but since you told me, I can't plead ignorance, so we might as well annoy each other to stay awake," Charlie joked.

"You can try to annoy me, but remember, you can't annoy me worse than Ruthie can. You know she's going to be a pain," Cherie replied as Charlie opened her door.

"Any idea who the guest is?" Charlie asked.

"Nope," Cherie said. "All I know is that it was a last minute addition, and I think Aunt Rose wasn't happy about it either."

Charlie shrugged. A mystery guest didn't really mean anything to her without more details. "Maybe whoever this guest is will help them from being as much of a pain as they usually are."

"Wow," Cherie said, looking rather surprised. "I've never heard you talk about them like that."

Charlie shrugged as she started walking towards the hall outside her room. "Maybe I'm just tired or maybe mom's right and Beth is a bad influence on me. I just don't care right now," Charlie replied, wondering if they would get here soon and allow her to take a nap right after their bags were in the rooms they'd take in the basement. Unless her aunt wanted her do more, which she sometimes did; almost like Charlie and her sister were servants or something.

Aunt Rose always had the room by the stairs and Ruthie always had the room right next to hers. Charlie's entire family had spent the previous Saturday cleaning the family room and getting the rooms ready for their guests. Although, they'd only gotten two rooms ready, so Charlie wasn't sure if Aunt Rose would be happy about that.

Although, on the other hand, since they didn't know about a guest, she couldn't get too upset. After all, they couldn't prepare for what they didn't know to expect.

"Well, should we try to clean up another room downstairs?" Charlie asked, not caring one way or the other, as she paused at the door to her room, right next to her sister.

"No, they didn't let us know before, so why should we run around because they didn't say something sooner?" Cherie said, looking like she was ready to tell their relatives what they could do with their bags, rather than being polite and helping carry their bags to the rooms they'd prepared for them.

"Want to watch something while we wait?" Charlie asked, not sure what to do with the time before their aunt and cousin arrived.

Cherie shook her head. "If we start something, I'll have to leave it partway through it and I don't really care to do that," Cherie replied, sounding as bored as Charlie knew she was going to be if their relatives didn't show up soon.

"Maybe we should go downstairs so we can get it over with as soon as possible," Charlie suggested. "That way we can get back to what we'd rather be doing that much sooner."

"Sounds better than what I was thinking," Cherie muttered.

"What were you thinking?" Charlie asked as she started to walk towards the stairs.

"That we should act like we were still cleaning so when they arrive they have to bring their bags in until they make enough noise we have to go upstairs to help them," Cherie replied as she followed Charlie.

"Yeah, Aunt Rose would be just as mad at us if we did that as she would be if we were asleep when she got here.

Cherie shrugged. "Maybe, but at least we could make it look like we were being productive. Maybe then she'd leave us alone more than she usually does," Cherie said.

"Maybe, but I doubt she'd leave us alone any more than she normally does," Charlie commented. "I mean, something big would have to happen to get her to take her attention from that, so I'd be surprised if she didn't bother us as much as she always has."

"I don't really care," Cherie said, sounding just plain tired. Which Charlie couldn't fault her for.

"Well, as soon as we get their bags in their rooms, how about we disappear?" Charlie suggested. "I'm sure you can get your friends to hide you out for most of this week… uh, well at least until Thursday. When mom and dad will expect us to be present."

Cherie laughed as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "You know, that's not a bad idea," she replied. "Mom didn't say that we needed to remain here after we got Aunt Rose's and Ruthie's bags. It might be fun to just not let them bother us by not being here."

"I doubt mom will be happy about it, but I doubt that Aunt Rose and Ruthie would say anything if they didn't have us to complain about or try to annoy," Charlie commented.

"Yeah, might be good to try," Cherie said as they heard a vehicle pull up outside. "I guess they're here."

"Might as well get this over with," Charlie said as she opened the door.

As expected, Aunt Rose was driving, Ruthie was in the passenger seat, and when she saw who the guest was in the back seat, right behind Ruthie, she had to take a few extra steps just to make sure she was seeing right.

Aunt Rose was as tall as their father, had brown hair, blue-grey eyes, and kept her hair in weird hairstyles. Charlie wasn't even sure what to call any of them, aside from pieces she knew parts of it were. Like braids and ringlets. She was also wearing a dark blue blouse and navy blue pantsuit.

Ruthie was almost the spitting image of their aunt. She had the same brown hair, emerald green eyes, stood an inch over five feet, and always had some sort of necklace on, even if it was a homemade craft project. She was also six months, to the day, older than Charlie. The only more tolerable thing that Charlie and Cherie found about Ruthie was that she kept her hair in a ponytail, even though it tended to be rather poofy, rather than the hairstyles her mother had. Ruthie was wearing a simple yellow t-shirt and jeans.

"What?" Cherie asked. "You see something?"

"I met her," Charlie said, surprised at being able to recognize who the extra guest was.

"Who?" Cherie asked, confused. "The girl in the back seat?"

"Yeah, she was at the camp this last summer," Charlie answered. "Her name is Emily." Emily was wearing a shocking pink tank top and jeans herself.

"Is she nice?" Cherie asked.

"She's nice enough," Charlie replied as their guests started getting out of the vehicle. "I guess you could say she's a friend. If only just barely."

"Well, we'll see if she's the same here," Cherie said as they started to walk over to where their aunt was getting the luggage out of the back of the SUV.

As they approached, Ruthie looked at them and squealed with pleasure. "You'll never guess what!" she cried.

"Um, what?" Cherie asked, sounding like she dreaded what the response would be.

"I got a girlfriend!" Ruthie exclaimed, pulling Emily next to her, hugging Emily's arm.

"Hi, Em," Charlie said casually.

"Hi Charlie," Emily replied, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth.

"What!? You already know her?!" Ruthie exclaimed.

"Uh, we were junior counselors at the same camp over the summer," Charlie replied.

While Charlie had expected for Ruthie to move on, the expression that Ruthie took at that statement, made Charlie's stomach fall to her feet. She knew she wasn't going to like what was about to come next.

"So, she's the girl you told me about," Ruthie said to Emily, a smug expression on Ruthie's face as she looked at Charlie.

"Yeah, she's that girl," Emily confirmed, looking like she'd just like to talk about anything else.

Emily looked Charlie up then down, as if whatever she'd been told made Charlie somehow different than she ahd been before.

"What?" Cherie asked. "What are you talking about? Charlie's what 'girl'?

"I'll tell you later," Charlie whispered to Cherie, hoping this topic would disappear at the moment.

"You better," Cherie muttered.

"Are you girls going to just stand there all day?" Aunt Rose called out from the back to the SUV, apparently having gotten all the bags out and was waiting for help.

"Sorry, just catching up with Ruthie," Charlie said, hoping it would pacify her aunt.

Sadly, it didn't. "Well, you can carry twice as many on your first trip then," her aunt retorted, although Charlie hoped that she wouldn't be able to enforce that demand.

Regardless, Charlie made her way over to pick up a couple bags, one in each hand. Fortunately, her aunt didn't carry through on her demand for her to carry twice as much, otherwise she would have started to have problems of her own.

Though as she started to take the bags in, she heard her aunt tell Cherie, "Oh, not those bags. The brat can carry her own bags."

Charlie shook her head. Her aunt definitely wasn't changing. She was still just as irritating as always. Though, now she got to see a side of her aunt she'd never seen before. A side she was glad had never been turned towards herself.

"Ruthie! Your friend can carry her own bags! You don't have to help!" Charlie heard her aunt yell as she took the bags inside, chuckling at what was happening behind her.

As Charlie took the bags downstairs through the stairs by the kitchen, she checked to see whose bags she had. If she put them in the wrong room, both she and her sister would be blamed and neither wanted to deal with their aunt's tirade about that again.

Fortunately, the bags she had were her aunts, so she was able to drop them quickly, since her aunt's room was the closest one to the stairs.

In all, it took Charlie and her sister three trips each to take all the bags down. At which point they were about to disappear, but were stopped when their aunt threw a wrench in things. Which was an unfortunate occurrence with her.

"Hold on, I guess I didn't tell you about the room changes this time," Aunt Rose told the girls before they had a chance to climb the stairs again.

"Why?" Cherie asked.

"Because my daughter is not going to be in the room right next to that brat," came the reply.